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Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced up to 20 percent of the
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recent layoffs at his department may have been in error and that those employees will need to be
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reinstated. The department fired approximately 10,000 workers this week, meaning up to 2,000
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will need to be rehired. Kennedy said some of the mistakes include members of the lead poisoning and
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surveillance unit at the CDC and the tobacco addiction team at the FDA. Personnel that
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should not have been cut or cut or reinstating them, and that was always the plan
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When he announced the cuts, Kennedy said HHS needed to be recalibrated to focus on disease
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prevention, not just sick care. According to Kennedy's statement to reporters, the Department
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of Government Efficiency wanted to focus on cuts to administrative roles like human resources or
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communications positions. He said there were, quote, tremendous redundancies, unquote, throughout the department, including over 100 communications departments
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40 procurement departments, and dozens of HR and IT departments. Most of the cuts are to those administrative sections, which are now consolidating
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we're eliminating the redundancies, we're streamlining the agencies, we're going to make
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it work for public health, make it work for the American people. Kennedy said both personnel and
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studies that should not have been cut were cut. Other safety-related positions that were
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eliminated include those who work to prevent the spread of food-borne illnesses. The FDA will cut
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back on routine food safety inspections and instead focus on high-risk facilities
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I'm Ray Bogan for Straight Arrow News. For more reporting, download the SAN app
